It is the second week of the month, and so it is time to read your letters! We have a backlog, and will read a lot of them this month. We’ll also check in with our Wombat Test Subject. Hope you enjoy it!
Links for this Episode:
- OneNote
- Agendio Customizable Planners
- Eagle Creek Pack-It Cube Sets (Ursula’s favorites)
- Tilly Waxed Cotton Convertible Knapsack (Kevin’s new favorite)
- Steal this Presentation
- Passion Planners
The thing that frustrates me about KonMari system stuff is that the Hypeâ„¢ tends to frame it as ~*totally unique and amazing*~, which is a little irksome when you’ve been hearing the same basic ideas since you were a small thing in the Canadian prairies in the eighties. Plus, of course, the “this will work for everyone!! It’s perfect!!” rhetoric that tends to go along with it, but I tend to think that here at PA we can take as read that this is absurd. 😉
Hilariously, the system is incompatible with the way both my brain and the brains of my sisters work, because we all inherited our grandmother’s latent hoarding tendencies, because the hoarding tendencies themselves are based in a kind of subconscious animism. We were the kind of children who were traumatized out of ever getting rid of stuffed animals by The Velveteen Rabbit and thus spent most of our young lives feeling secretly guilty and gutted at how we were Terrible for not Loving Our Toys Better.
It’s the kind of thing that means that when my grandmother was getting ready to move, I would smile and accept books on cat behaviour that were useless and thirty years out of date (as well as probably a health hazard due to dust etc) because it was once a Useful Book that Meant To Serve People and my grandmother couldn’t bear the idea of it being thrown away (or given to the SallyAnn where it would be thrown away or mistreated by someone who would not Value It).
I would then throw it in the recycling bin, because it’s not a person, it’s a Thing, and it can go get recycled. I will leave you to imagine how much Stuff her worldview managed to fill a six-bedroom home with when unchecked over forty years except by the occasional round of her children forcing her to clean.
Our bar is “does this justify the space it takes up?” Sometimes “justification” is “IT MAKES ME HAPPY”, and sometimes “justification” is “everyone needs a set of clothes they Know will be appropriate for a somewhat-formal funeral, and if you’re Unsure you’ll have income in the future it’s pretty damn stupid to throw out a perfectly serviceable outfit just because you’d never wear it anywhere else”.
(I also have to be pretty strict with myself these days about Not Doing Shit All At Once, because if I do that, I will run myself ragged about halfway through. Or I will terrify myself away from the project and never get it done because OH GOD.)
I love this post with the love of Oh My Gods My Maternal Ancestors Are Just Like This and I Might Be Too But.
Also, yay for recycling bins.
Yaaaay BAGS!
You aren’t alone in the back issues complicated by messenger bags. I asked a bag loving co-worker his opinion also and he switched to a backpack style for the same reason.
My REI does not seem to believe in Timbuk2 (anymore? I thought they had them at some point) so I’ll have to see who does carry them near by. I prefer to frolic in things before I decide to buy.
I ended up really liking the KonMari method. Surprising only because I normally shun foamy hype things. I will probably never get to the final completed stage of it, but I’ve also never held on to methods or strict anything hard enough for this to be distressing. I have so much less stuff now and I like or love most of it, especially when it fills the niche/job in my life SO beautifully.
Hell Yes! for What Not to Wear’s it’s the designer/clothing not your body that’s the problem.
Hi, I wanted to suggest Deuter messenger bags if you’re still looking. Where I’m from they tend to be carried together with Ospreys and other backpacks. Deuter’s messenger bags are very rugged and quite durable for me – mine has been to 3 different countries carrying anything from regular notebooks to water bottles and a Bluetooth keyboard. Their selections may be a bit small but they have good compartmentalisation.
Ironically because I no longer carry the Bluetooth keyboard as much anymore I am switching to a smaller Tigernu bag – similar material (but in grey) but with a zipper option to turn the straps from shoulder to backpack.
It’s weird that the badge codes won’t work on mobile. This is the first episode code I *haven’t* been able to redeem from Safari on my iPhone.